Abstract:

Objective: Health care-associated infections HAIs increase patient morbidity, mortality and cost, and are the most common complications in hospitalised patients. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiology, causative microorganisms, and resistance patterns of HAIs.Material and Method: Patients hospitalised between January 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010 in Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine Department of Children’s Health and Diseases were included in the study. Data in patient files, nursery observation charts, reports of radiology, microbiology and other diagnostic methods were investigated, and the data obtained were prospectively collected.Results: In the study period of six months, 1900 patients were evaluated and HAIs were detected in 176 patients. The frequency of HAIs in all services combined was 9.3% 0.9%-28.1% and incidence density was 10.86/1000 0,82-24.86/1000 patient days. HAIs were most frequently seen in neonatal intensive care unit, paediatric intensive care unit, haematology-oncology ward & bone marrow transplantation unit and neurology wardin order of decreasing frequency. The most frequently seen HAIs were blood stream infections, pneumonia and gastrointestinal system infections, respectively. The incidence of HAIs was found to be reversely related with age. Other risk factors were length of hospital stay, invasive interventions, co-morbid diseases, transfusion, antacid use. Gram-negative bacteria were responsible for 53% and gram-positive bacteria for 28% of nosocomial infections where the causative microorganisms were detected. Conclusion: HAIs surveillance is an important step for decreasing the hospital infection rates by recognising and analysing the problems, giving feed-back, directing the infection control measures toward the target

Keywords: